LSSU develops policy banning firearms on campus

Do not plan on walking around the Lake Superior State University with a firearm on your hip — even if you have a concealed carry permit.

At a recent LSSU Board of Trustees meeting, officials said an administrative policy banning firearms on campus has been completed after months of review.

“What happened is it came to our attention that a person with a concealed weapons permit could open carry on a university campus unless the city had an ordinance against open carry,” said LSSU President Tony McLain. “We’ve decided we don’t want people walking around campus like the Old West.”

Ken Peress, vice president for student affairs, said the university was trying to close a loophole that existed in an older policy.

“We don’t have an elected board so we cannot enact ordinance,” he said. “If we do catch someone, they will be asked to leave or we will invoke a trespass action.”

If that would happen, then local law enforcement could be called in to remove the person from campus if they do not do so willingly.

“As an institution we do have the right to restrict our property. Yes, it is public property, but everyone doesn’t have a right to come up here and treat it as their own,” McLain said. “We passed a policy that says you can’t open carry on our campus. Basically, that is what the policy did. It allowed us to control our property and what people did on our property.”

The policy also bans hunting on school property, possession of explosives and possession of chemicals with intent to causing injury or damage.

“We have students who bring their gun to campus. The rule is you have to check it in, but you can’t walk around campus with it,” the president said. “We also have a number of events like Ducks Unlimited. At that event, they raffle off four or five guns. We didn’t want to stop that from happen. It was carefully crafted to allow those events to still take place.”

McLain said without the policy, there would be no reason for officials to talk to someone who was seen with a gun on campus.

“This was put in to deal with the ‘Northern Exposure’ attitude toward weapons here,” he said. “This addresses everything about guns on campus.”

The president said Northern Michigan University has a similar policy, while the three main universities in the state probably have passed laws.

“This policy hasn’t been used yet,” McLain said. “If we find it has some holes in it or too restrictive, we will change it.”